How to Make a Smart Home Test Bench
Sometimes we DIY smart home people install smart devices and they don’t work. At first, we scratch our heads wondering what went wrong. Did I install it wrong? Is there a loose …
How To
MQTT With Home Assistant Using Docker & Mosquitto
MQTT is a great protocol to have in your automation arsenal. I previously wrote a similar article about using the Toke Mosquitto container with Home Assistant and Docker. I have since switched …
BroadLink RM4 Mini: Smart Home Infrared Control
It’s great to have devices in your smart home that you can control over your network or with a smart home/IoT-designed protocol like MQTT, Z-Wave, or Zigbee. But what about the devices …
Ring Mailbox Sensor Review: Best For Long Range?
Mail theft is a growing problem in many neighborhoods, including mine. I have a locking box and thieves have still broken into my mailbox. I’ve long wanted to use a mailbox sensor …
Smart Home Dimming with The Shelly Dimmer 2
Background on my use case I’ve been a fan of TP-Link (Kasa) smart home products for a while. They are inexpensive, allow local control, and work well. A couple of things happened …
DIY Garage Door Opener w/ Security+ 2.0 GDOs
A little while back I wrote an article about how to turn your dumb garage door opener into a smart one for just $15 using a Shelly 1 relay. This worked great …
Using a Telegram Bot for Home Assistant Notifications
Google announced they were going to discontinue Hangouts what seems like forever ago (I mentioned it in my 2020 predictions). They still haven’t completely retired it, but I expect they will soon. …